Q: Between speaking, traveling, running your gym, writing articles etc – how do you find the time to get it all done?

A: It’s all about Laserbeam focus:

Reconsider doing ANYTHING that does not get you closer to your goals. People would be more surprised at what I DON’T do, or things I say no to, more than anything else. I am relentless when it comes to focusing on key tasks.

I don’t watch much TV, or read newspapers, junk web sites etc.
I don’t eat a meal alone, or worst case without taking reading material with me. I flew cross country this weekend – read a book, six articles and wrote two blog posts on the first leg while other were sleeping/listening to music/watching movies etc.

My car has educational CD’s stacked up in it. I get 4 or 5 a month from various newsletters and coaching groups and just get through them. If I get an idea from one of them I take notes before I get out of the car (which may become an article/blog post).
I won’t waste a drive to or from work during the week listening to music or talk radio.

Download podcasts to your ipod. Make use of (as Zig Ziglar called it) “Automobile University”.

Set up an idea-day once a month where you read all the newsletters/blogs/material you want to get through. Schedule that day in advance and stick to it. You’ll get through more material in a dedicated day than you will trying to grab 15 mins here and there.

Have a great team around you. Results Fitness are not my staff – they are my TEAM. I delegate to them and I trust them to do world-class work.

The problem is most people mix them too much – and if you mix them – you get brown and brown is —- !

However, if you have enough blue and yellow time — you make enough green time.

Sleep quality: not enough can be said. Just like training, you can’t make up quality with volume. And in fact – you can think of it like the reverse.
Massively improving sleep quality could allow you to sleep 30 mins or an hour less than you do now — finding 30 mins per day 5 days per week is 2 1/2 extra hours per week or 125 hours per year. That’s the equivalent of three forty-hour work weeks each year. If you can save another 30 mins somewhere else each day – we’ve just found another 3 weeks.
That’s six additional weeks of productivity each year.

Time management isn’t about managing time per se as much as it is about focusing on your goals and only doing activities that get you closer to your goals.

I only visit two internet forums – the Results Fitness Biz coaching group and Michael Boyle’s strengthcoach forum. I’m always amazed at how many people have time to link to articles on bodybuilding websites/magazines. Don’t get me wrong – I love it — it means that the article was worth reading, but it also means I don’t have to visit these sites every day – someone does it for me.

One of my coaching clients had productivity/time management issues – yet he could tell me everything that was ever printed on internet forums/bodybuilding and fitness websites etc. When we cut that out – his income jumped.

And finally – track every single minute of your workweek for a couple of weeks and see what you actually do.
Is your activity goal-achieving or just tension-relieving (facebook, watching TV etc)?
The latter is ok – but make sure it’s an appropriate amount of time. Most people are shocked when they track their time.